Article Text
Abstract
Objective Concussion knowledge among Icelandic athletes has been found to be lacking (Kristjánsdóttir et al., 2020), but not much is known about on-site responses. This qualitative descriptive study aimed to assess field response among female athletes after their reported ‘most severe concussion’ during training or competition.
Design A cross-sectional study approved by the National Bioethics Committee. Participants that reported a concussion in an online questionnaire distributed through sports-related Facebook pages (snowball sampling) were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews.
Setting Icelandic female athletes self-reporting concussion
Participants 156 semi-professional and professional Icelandic female athletes (51% retired) in contact sports (AgeM=28.0; SD=7.2). Participants signed an informed consent.
Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) Not applicable.
Outcome measure Retrospective self-report of concussion incidents with an open-ended question (How was the on-site response after the most severe incident?).
Main Results Five themes emerged: 1) the athlete continued to play (44%). 2) the athlete did not continue to play (37%), 3) it was unclear by her response if she continued (9%), 4) the athlete did not remember what happened (1%), 5) the concussion was not sports-related (8%). If the athlete continued to play, someone checked on her in 60% of instances, and 42% reported that they themselves had to decide if they could continue. The reasons for not continuing were mainly because the athlete was either taken to the hospital by an ambulance (22%) or driven there by someone or herself (21%).
Conclusions Field response following concussions is inadequate in Iceland, and improvements are needed.